Buck,
Nice to hear from you.
I went back to the UK for 6 weeks to visit with the family.
Nice to see them all, but the UK in general depressed me. Glad to live here in NZ.
Single Shot is almost finished.
The barrel (Badger 34" full octagonal) has been mounted to the action. A new extractor has been fabricated.
The barrel has been dovetailed for the front sight and for the fore arm tenon.
The "browning" solution has been ordered for the barrel. I have decided to leave the action as it is, as after over 100 years of life it has earned every nick, scratch and blemish.
Sights arrived last week. Soule long range rear and tunnel front.
The woodwork is on its way from Pecatonica Rifles. Forearm tenon and buttplate to be ordered from Treebone Carving ( I'll do this tomorrow).
I have a litre of proper "boiled " linseed oil ready for the hand rubbed finish for the wood. I will not use this much but it will be good to keep in the shed for any future projects.
All I need to organise now is brass (45-70) and a mould for the projectile (been looking at a 535gn mould).
I cant get Swiss powder here in NZ so I am going to use Goex. Its twice the price of the Chinese powder I have been using for all my other shooting but quality and consistancy are what I am after.
Getting very excited about it all. Altogether it has cost me about $1300NZ, $1000US. To buy an Italian repo here new I would have been looking at about $1500NZ but it would have lacked all the personal touches I will have put into this project.
I have been trying to lay my hands on a digital camera so that I could upload some photos. I'll try to do so this weekend.
Dai.